


Can't Take That Away

by MeredithBrody



Category: Designated Survivor (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2019-03-08 11:10:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13456989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: Forced to separate, it seems nothing will bring them back together (self contained three-shot)





	1. Seth 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hideous_Sun_Demon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hideous_Sun_Demon/gifts), [Fibi94](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fibi94/gifts), [galia_carrots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galia_carrots/gifts), [foreveranna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/foreveranna/gifts), [PinkAngel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkAngel/gifts).



> OK this is very rough, has little editing and will be checked through tomorrow but... Here have some angst.

The article was all over the place and Seth had no idea what to say, or do. There were no hard facts in it, no proof that anything he, Kendra and Lyor were doing was untoward, and yet here was the bones of their relationship, laid out in black and white. He and Kendra had been public now for several months, and Lyor was, to everyone else, just their good friend. The only person who knew anything about them was Judith Daynes, and given the profanity laden rant Lisa mentioned in the article, Seth somehow doubted any of the information had come from her.

Seth had his arm wrapped around Kendra as she read it. Aaron sat in a chair a little away from them, Emily pacing around the room and Lyor standing silently staring out of the window. Nothing needed to be said for the moment, Seth felt like the silence was probably all the others needed to know something about what was going in. Kendra’s sniffles every few seconds probably weren’t helping either. Emily looked like she was going to explode. Aaron just looked confused. Seth hoped that they could come back from this.

“Is it true, then?” Emily demanded after a few more lingering moments of silence. Seth wondered how they would answer it. The sexual implications were definitely untrue, but the emotional ones... They were accurate and Seth wanted to say that, he wanted to stand up and say that he loved them both, but the words caught in his throat. He just stayed where he was sat, his arm wrapped around Kendra.

“I’ve never had sex with either of them.” Lyor tried, he tried but the quiver in his voice betrayed the emotion. Sex was only one part of a relationship and it was the only part that had been missing from that relationship. It never felt like anything was missing though, not for Seth, and he knew not for Kendra either. They had each other for that, Lyor was asexual, and they had both accepted that. After that first conversation it had never even come in to play.

“That’s true, Emily.” Kendra spoke quietly, her usual strong, certain voice broken and betrayed by the barely suppressed sobs she was trying to hold in. “But it isn’t the while story. Seth and I... We have a physical, emotional and... Sexual relationship. But Lyor doesn’t factor in to the third.” God how Seth hated this. Having to discuss his sex life with his friends. Not that he and Kendra actually had chance all that often. It was likely even more embarrassing for Kendra, she was so private, so shy, about that part of her life.

“But he does the other two? What are you telling us?” Emily was getting more and more irate the longer this meeting went on, but it couldn’t be over until there was some kind of resolution, something that would make everything seem like it couldn’t get any worse. Before any if them could say anything Emily looked around and spoke firmly. “If any of you want to continue working in this administration you end it, all of it. Right now.”

“You can’t do that!” Seth thundered, jumping to his feet. He deserved to be able to conduct his private life the way he wanted, regardless of his position. “Kendra, tell her. There must be dome legal way not to do this.” He looked at his girlfriend only to see the hopelessness in her tear-stained face when she gently shook her head, signalling there was nothing she could do. “Baby, come on. Please?”

He wasn’t above begging, but the soft shake of Kendra’s head and her tears falling faster told him it really was hopeless. “We have a right to our private life and to conduct such how we want, but there is no provision, none... That could protect us from this because it’s political, not legal.” She took his hand and pulled him back down beside her. “The fact Lyor hasn’t said anything means that, politically, Emily is making the right choice.”

“But I love you. Both of you.” Seth felt Lyor come over to sit with them, while both Emily and Aaron seemed to be trying to melt into the background to give them some privacy. Seth couldn’t imagine not having Lyor and Kendra in his life, and he wasn’t sure he could continue working here if that ended up being the case.

They sat and talked all night, at the office, then back at Kendra’s apartment and come the morning they all knew it had been the last time. Lyor gathered what things he’d left there then kissed them both before disappearing into the morning. They’d see him later, at work, but it wouldn’t be the same. He and Kendra then spent the morning saying their own goodbye, telling each other how much they loved one another. He couldn’t think of how to live without her, how to live without all of this that they had built up, but he was going to have to try.

It took a month before he couldn’t keep working there. A month before the stolen moments alone in Kendra’s office with one or both of them wasn’t enough anymore. He couldn’t stay around them when he knew that they couldn’t have what they wanted. They’d planned on having a family together, they’d planned in so much. Now it was never going to come to pass, all because of a bitter article from a jealous reporter. His life ruined because of one stupid woman.

That was the day he handed in his resignation, he packed up his apartment, cancelled his phone and closed his bank accounts. He left a letter each for Kendra and Lyor, telling them both about how much he loved them, and how he couldn’t manage without them... And he left. He didn’t know where he was going, but he left. 


	2. Lyor

Seth leaving hadn’t been a surprise, at least not to Lyor, but he could tell it had been to Kendra. She seemed lost the first few days without Seth around, and Lyor had to admit that it seemed awfully lonely whole he wasn’t there. He missed his friend, even if they weren’t allowed to be anything that they wanted to be. The longer they waited for him to contact the more Lyor realised that Seth may have left entirely. Kendra taking him to Seth’s apartment showed that that fear had been right after all.

Lyor was so guilty for everything that had happened. If he’d stayed away, Seth and Kendra would have been able to go on with their relationship, and the lives that they’d planned. He knew that they wouldn’t want for him to feel this way but he still did and seeing Kendra walking around perpetually frowning made it even more difficult to act as though it wasn't his fault. She and Seth had been such a team, rarely alone for the last year, now it was clear she was lost.

What he didn’t expect was the urgency that she came to him with that Friday morning. She looked on the verge of tears, not entirely uncommon when she wasn’t focused on her work right now, but there was something else to this. It seemed like she was nervous and mildly terrified St the same time, and the look on her face told him that this was something serious. “Can you get hold of Seth?”

“I’ve been trying but he’s gone off-grid, why?” Lyor had tried to call Seth several times, mostly to tell him to call Kendra. He could love with all of this, but nobody was sure that Kendra was coping that well with this upheaval. There hadn’t been any contact with Seth in a week since he’d walked out of the White House following his last briefing as Press Secretary. Seth didn’t need to tell anyone where he was doing and had apparently decided that nobody deserved to know.

“I don’t know what to do, he’s left and I need to speak to him.” The urgency kept growing and Lyor worried that something was desperately wrong. He’d never seen her like this. Never seen her panicking and fretting and doing really anything and everything she could just to hold on. He eventually just pulled her into his arms and wrapped her up, something he’d done a million times before to calm her.

Once she’d stopped shaking he let go a little and held her chin, lifting it so that she had to look him in the eyes as he spoke. He needed to know what had caused all this. He needed to know if there was something, anything really, that he could do to try and make this easier for her. “Kendra... What is it?”

“Lyor I’m pregnant.” She blurted it out, and instead of saying anything Lyor just pulled her back into his arms and kissed the top of her head. He knew that only meant one thing and he wasn’t going to push her on it. There had never been any doubt in his mind that Seth and Kendra had been trying for this, it had been the plan, but knowing it worked when everything had gone so wrong broke his heart.

“When did you find out?” He asked quietly after a few more minutes. He figured that she hadn’t known a week earlier. If she had Seth would have never resigned, he would have never left. They all would have fought harder for what they wanted, even if that meant he needed to step back. Seth deserved to know he was going to be a father, but they could only tell him if they found him.

“This morning. I’ve been trying everyone. Seth’s friends, his brother and sister, his parents. He’s just... Gone.” Lyor knew that there was nothing he could really do other than reassure her that she wasn’t ever going to have to face this on her own. He’d be there. “What am I going to do?” She asked after a few seconds and he could understand why she needed to be reassured.

“You mean what are we going to do, we’ll work it out.” There was never a question in his mind that he wouldn’t step up, but after only a week or so of trying to be a couple it was clear that, without Seth, there was just not enough balance to make them work. But co-parenting and being with her was more than enough. Lisa Jordan’s retribution for her article was swift. She was painted as a bitter woman who had broken up a family with vicious lies and conjecture. She left the White House in disgrace a month later, and Lyor never tracked her after that. Instead, he went to every doctor’s appointment. He was there when their son was born and agreed wholeheartedly with Kendra to name him after his biological father, the one who still didn’t know about him.

Every week Lyor tried to track him down, but he was never successful. When Seth Junior started walking and talking Lyor knew that Kendra was thinking about Seth because Lyor was too. He would have been so good at this and they had no idea where he was. It was obvious to everyone who Junior’s father was, and that at least stopped the questions.

When Kendra decided she wanted to step back from the crazy hours she worked at the White House Lyor didn’t blame her, nobody did. Her mother had died and she’d never been the same since Seth left. The President had helped secure her a teaching position, and she was still as much a part of their extended family as she ever had been. But the more that things changed the more Lyor realised how much their family felt like it was missing pieces, and so he kept trying to bring them all back together, so he could complete the puzzle.


	3. Kendra

Five years seemed like a very, very long time and Kendra sometimes still couldn’t believe how often Seth crossed her mind. Even today, walking home from daycare with Junior it was like he was right there, walking with them. Junior was running ahead, as usual, and Kendra had to jog to keep up. He was a constant ball of energy, and Kendra thought he had to have inherited that from Seth. “Hey there, who are you running away from?” She heard a voice say, and as she looked up she saw that Junior had come to a complete stop.

“Seth Daynes get your little butt back here,” Kendra called as she jogged up and scooped Junior into her arms when she reached him, blowing a raspberry on his cheek. She didn’t really even consider the man that Junior had run into at first, and she only turned to apologise when he was back on his feet. “I’m sorry, he’s a terror today.”

“Kennie...?” How long had it been since someone called her that? She paused a moment then reached out to push the hood down. Seth was skinnier, now, with a little more grey running through his hair but otherwise looked like any other runner out here. If Junior hadn’t run into him she wouldn’t have even stopped to look. She had her hand on Junior’s head and she wondered if she should tell him, but she was too shocked.

“Seth…” She said it quietly and she just had to check it was really him, moving her hand to his cheek. The way he kissed her thumb as she did that proved beyond any doubt that it really was him. He was there right in front of her and she had what she needed to know to prove it. “Seth, oh my God.”

“I hoped you might still walk through here when you wanted to think.” Of course, he had known her well enough to know that. He had come with her here a dozen times. They had walked through this park, had picnics with Lyor under the trees. The same things she and Lyor did now, just with a different third member. “It’s been a long time.”

“Hey, get your ass back here you. I can see you.” She couldn’t, but she knew that Junior had been moving away and it was easier to make him worry that she could always see than just accept that she wasn’t always watching. At four years old he still needed to know there were boundaries, but at least she could see the play area from here.

“Momma, please?” Junior begged, and she tore her eyes away from Seth’s just long enough to look down and her son then to the play area. It would be better if she let him go and play, she wasn’t going to be letting Seth go easily this time. A fleeting return would cause her so many more problems than this had to begin with.

She just nodded a little to Junior, and watched his smile as he raced off to climb, she linked her arm around Seth’s and followed at a slower pace. Watching Junior made her think how this all could have been so different, something that they had all wanted and really that they had all deserved. “Seth that’s your son.”

“I know, I can tell.” They got close enough that if Junior shouted they’d hear him, and Kendra watched Seth’s face as he watched his son play. The only thing Kendra wished was that Lyor had been here to see it, been here to share in this moment with them all. “I missed you.”

“God I’ve missed you, I’ve missed you so much.” She couldn’t help be lean forward and kiss him deeply, feeling his arms wrap around her in a gesture that was both achingly familiar and entirely foreign. There hadn’t been anyone else, for her there was never going to be anyone else. It was just Seth.

“Ken… I can’t come back to have you ripped from me again.” Seth sounded like those were the hardest words he’d ever had to say but at least Kendra could reassure him of that. There was no reason she would be in the news anymore, and any scandal involving Lyor alone wouldn’t hurt the President. This was the perfect time, really. More than that, she wanted this. “I can’t come back and not have you with me.”

“I don’t work at the White House anymore. I teach at Georgetown. Lyor is still on the President’s staff and we co-parent Junior, so I still see them regularly, and he and I aren’t a couple.” It seemed easier to get that out in the open, they had never liked keeping secrets from one another. “It wasn’t the same without you.” It wasn’t who they were, and Kendra hadn’t wanted to try and push it. “Come home.”

They spoke for a while, they kissed for a while and before Kendra knew it they were a couple again. Lyor completing the trio when he had gotten used to Seth being back. Kendra knew that there was always going to be complications, but she’d been co-parenting so long it was much easier to explain now, and she was happy.

The days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned to months. Seth found a job, they moved to a new house together. Living out in the suburbs, still close enough for Lyor to live in an apartment above the garage. He liked having his own space as well as the bed the three of them shared. Junior quickly got used to having his dad around, and the amount that Kendra and Lyor had spoken about him eased that.

Kendra almost couldn’t believe her luck, that her life had gone from being such a mess to being this. This had always been her plan, always what she wanted. Now she knew that nothing was going to be able to take it away


	4. Seth 2

There was a happiness that Seth Wright was fairly sure had to be illegal, but it had finally come to pass. There had been a 5 year detour, and he hated that he’d missed so much of life during those years. He should never have left the way he did. Never should have disappeared and just called his mother once a month to say that he was okay. There had been so much that he was missing, and he hadn’t even known.

Now though he had both a reward and proof that nobody held those five years against him. He held the two most precious miracles he’d ever been granted. He wondered if he would have felt this way in the hour after Junior had been born too if he’d been there for that. He didn’t want to put either of his daughter’s down, but his arm was getting tired and he could only keep hold of one.

Luckily, Lyor was right there. Ready for his turn holding one of their daughters. There was no competition, Lyor was as much their parent as he or Kendra were. They were a unit and Seth couldn’t imagine doing this any other way. “Hey little one, you should go to Papa because daddy’s arm is getting tired.” He spoke quietly to the baby he’d dressed in the yellow. Alexandra, named for the First Lady, in appreciation of all the help she’d given them.

“Which one is this one?” Lyor asked as he took her into his arms. For some reason, despite knowing that Lyor had been co-parenting with Kendra for Junior’s entire life, Seth had assumed that Lyor would be awkward with babies. It was obviously the opposite, he took to holding Alex like an old pro, and Seth was actually a little jealous as he looked at the much more awkward way he was holding the second baby.

“That’s Alex, the second one.” She was three minutes younger, and Seth had a feeling that she was going to be the troublemaker in the family. She would be the one who gave him the biggest worries. She’d come into the world backwards, just to make an entrance. Baby number one, on the other hand, had come out smiling. “This one’s Anila.”

He was still walking around the room they’d been given, Kendra in the bathroom with a nurse while he and Lyor stayed with the babies. He smiled when the door opened, and Hannah Wells’ face smiled over the top of the seven-year-old she brought to meet his sisters. “Hey, big man!” Seth greeted, smiling and nodding at Hannah as she pulled back. He assumed that she’d brought everyone with her. Aaron, probably the President and Alex. That was the reason they’d been given the private room.

“Dad!” Junior was now just as excited to see him as he was excited to see Lyor, and that made Seth feel like he really had been accepted into the family again. He had worried that, as excited and happy Kendra was that he was back, nobody else would have felt that way. “Is that one of the babies?”

“This is your sister Anila. Papa has Alex.” Seth knelt down, letting Junior stroke his sister’s face. This was better than he had ever imagined, and he didn’t know how he had been this lucky in the end. His children, all three of them, and the two people he loved most in the whole world were a real family.

Bouncing Anila up and down, just so happy about the fact that the two girls were there with their family. Watching his little girl, he felt like his heart was going to explode. This little girl was something that he had created because he loved her mother that much. He was so excited about all of this. “I can’t believe I made you.” He whispered quietly, just amazed at his daughter.

“You made all three of them, Seth,” Lyor said, standing behind him with their other daughter. Seth hoped that both these girls looked like their mother, the same way that Junior looked like him. Seth kissed Alex’s head as Lyor stood close enough, and then he looked up to Lyor’s face and smiled.

“I know, but it’s still hard to believe.” He hadn’t been able to believe he had a son when he came back, even though he’d been able to see Junior, speak to him. He’d missed so much so doing it all again and this time being here for it, it was special. “I mean…” He dropped his head and he knew that Lyor would understand exactly what he was meaning.

Seth knew that he didn’t have to be ashamed, both Kendra and Lyor had understood why he’d had to leave, they had understood that being around them when they couldn’t be together had been breaking him… but sometimes that didn’t make him feel better, and at times like this, it actually felt like he was making an excuse for his inability to cope. “You still can’t believe Kendra took you back, can you?” Lyor asked though it wasn’t anything that he hadn’t said before.

“Not really.” He couldn’t believe that either of them had taken him back. “I mean, I left and she was already pregnant and I didn’t come back until 5 years later… and yet here I am.” He looked at the two girls and smiled as he looked up to see Kendra coming back into the room and up to the bed. This was his future.

He didn’t know what the rest of his life was going to bring, but what he did know was that trying to break them up hadn’t worked, and in the end they had come back stronger. Maybe that was the real moral of this tale. It was to tell him that, no matter how bad things were, they weren’t going to be bad enough that his family were taken away. They were stronger than that.


End file.
